This in turn exposes not only patients, but also nurses to a significant amount of noise and alarms, ultimately leading to the clinical problem called alarm fatigue. As defined by the Joint Commission, alarm fatigue is known as the desensitization of medical staff as a result of sensory overload. This overload ultimately results in a delay of an alarm being answered, and sometimes someone completely missing the alarm altogether (The Joint Commission, 2015). Alarm fatigue has been recognized as a contributing
As these programs are developed strategies and standards are addressed and barriers identified to ensure success of preventing falls. Falls are a serious concern among the elderly population, and a major concern within the health care community. Falls are the most adverse event reported in hospitals and are leading cause of death in patients 65 years or older. Nation-wide the average rate for a first fall range from 2.2 to 3.6 per 1000 patient days. Litigations related to hospital falls is growing in both frequency and severity; hospital administrators are in a quandary on how to reduce patient falls.
The coordination of patients is also poor which can result in devastating delays in diagnosis and treatment of patients. The community also has very poorly organized programs for cancer prevention and community education. Education is a key factor in the health of the community and getting early diagnosis of treatable cancers. Orthopedics As seen in the trend with oncology the orthopedic needs of the community are expected to grow by 46% in the next five years, with inpatient spine and joint procedures increasing by 30% and outpatient spine and joint procedures increasing by 350%. All of these numbers show a huge increase in demand.
Abuse of prescription drugs in the United States in the past decade is at an alarming all time high. Prescription drug abuse is defines as any intentional ues of a medication with intoxicating properties outside of the physician’s prescription for a medical condition. There is an increase of nonmedical prescription medication abuse among young adults. A Major problem is the negative effect on the quality of medical care offered to the addicted and non-addicted. Care for the addicted patients is inappropriate in primary healthcare.
EMERGENCY NURSES ASSOCIATION POSITION STATEMENT CROWDING IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Crowding in our nation’s emergency departments is of increasing concern to health care professionals and health care consumers alike. Although the issue of emergency department (ED) crowding in the United States has appeared in the emergency health care literature since the early 1990s, it has received greater coverage during the last few years, capturing the attention of many Americans and policymakers.1-4 ED crowding can be described as “a situation in which the identified need for emergency services outstrips available resources in the emergency department. This situation occurs in hospital emergency departments when there are more patients than staffed ED treatment beds and wait times exceed a reasonable period.”5 When crowding occurs, patients are often placed in hallways and other non- treatment areas to be monitored until ED treatment beds or staffed hospital inpatient beds become available.6 In addition, crowding may contribute to an inability to triage and treat patients in a timely manner as well as increased rates of patients leaving the emergency department without being seen.4,6 As a result of crowding, hospitals often implement ambulance diversion measures, which means ambulances that would otherwise bring patients to the facility’s emergency department are directed to nearby emergency departments instead.4 In many cases, ambulance diversion may be an ineffective response to crowding.5-9 For example, when one hospital goes on diversion, other area hospitals may begin diverting ambulances as well, potentially resulting in ED crowding throughout the community.8,9 In response to growing national concern over ED crowding, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) conducted a study of hospital emergency departments in metropolitan
However, because thousands of new drugs have been developed recently, because the health care environment is increasingly complex, and because the patients are older and often sicker, there is increasing risk for medication errors in hospitals. They occur most frequently at the prescribing and administration stages. Medication errors occur in all health care systems; and often result in serious patient harm or deaths are the focus because this is an issue for most hospitals. Serious errors harm patients and expose health professionals to civil liability and sometimes-criminal prosecution (NHS Jan 2004, p.9). The statistics of medication error consistently increases in health care sector.
My topic proposal is the overuse of the emergency department. It’s an issue that every hospital in America is grappling with. Emergency room visits nationwide are on the rise, even as the total number of emergency rooms is falling. Add this to the fact that, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's recent publication, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2006 Emergency Department Summary, only 15.9 million out of 119 million visits to the emergency room in 2006 was urgent or emergent. Going to an emergency room instead of scheduling a doctor's appointment has become a trend in this country.
Steps to Reduce Emergency Department Crowding Abstract Steps to Reduce Emergency Department Crowding In hospital emergency departments all over the country, overcrowding is becoming a common problem. Emergency departments (ED) are forced to contend with factors such as increasing volumes, nationwide nursing shortages, high patient acuity, and changes in medicine and technology, and because of this, they are struggling to keep up with these changes. Numerous studies have shown that overcrowded emergency rooms have contributed to longer lengths of stay and increased rates of patients leaving without being seen (LWBS) by a health care provider. Some studies have also shown that overcrowding contributes to a decreased quality of care. This problem not only affects the patients who feel that they aren’t receiving the care they deserve but the healthcare providers who feel they aren’t able to provide the best care possible.
Vulnerable Population in the Workplace Report NUR/440 February 6, 2012 Vulnerable Population in the Workplace Report The emergency room has a high incident and increased acuity of psychiatric patients. Emergency room nurses have little tolerance for this population and have developed bias that can result in this population receiving inadequate care. Emergency rooms experience overcrowding and many emergency nurses report fatigue, over worked, and frustrated in dealing with the psychiatric patient. They cannot immediately fix this populations illness as in medical treatment. This report identifies bias and apathetic attitudes that create barriers to positive mental health outcomes.
In addition, new diseases such as AIDS, SARS and the threat of bio-terrorism have entered our lives. New technologies and treatments occur rapidly, but are often expensive, and financing these advances can be difficult. Patients are moved out of hospital rapidly, and those that remain are more acutely ill than they have been in the past. Those discharged patients often need more assistance at home and in the community than in previous years, and those services can also be expensive. Nurses are a vital part of the health care scene, but nursing shortages have appeared in many areas, shortages that are predicted to worsen over time.